Health Benefits of Martial Arts Essay

The major goal of the alcohol beverage industry is to sell alcohol, through advertising. In 2008 the alcohol beverage spent $1. 63 billion on their advertisement budget which is less than half of what one thinks’ of as advertising which the means are TV, magazines, newspapers, and outdoor billboards. Other forms of advertisements are termed â€Å"promotions† which include but not limited to: sponsorship of cultural, musical and sporting events, internet advertising, displays for retail stores, and product placements in movies and TV shows. The total promotion and advertising budget is over $4. billion which is virtually equivalent to what is spent on advertising other beverages from milk to fruit juice. The alcohol beverage industry especially targets the youth by using animation characters, product placement, and social media. The alcohol beverage industry uses animation characters such as the Budweiser frogs, new beverages for example wine coolers that were appealing to the younger people in the 1980’s. Product placement is carefully considered. Magazines and television shows reveals detailed information regarding viewers and readers that allows advertisers to target very specific populations. In response to lobbyists and the fear of government action, in 2003 the liquor and beer trade organizations joined the wine industry in adopting a â€Å"30% threshold† to guide the placement of beverage ads. This means they would not advertise where the underage audience exceeds 30%. The magazine ads decreased as the television ads increased. Also the 20 major brewers did not adopt this 30% policy. Since the social media is so popular among the under age drinkers, the alcohol beverage company has many advertisements and promotion on Facebook. The alcohol beverage industries have been encouraged to use free features on Facebook such as Facebook applications, events and pages. In the summer of 2009, there were 93 Facebook pages, with more than a million fans for the top-selling beer brands. The top ten selling liquor brands had three times that. One alcohol beverage company has created a special corporate position devoted to using Twitter and other social media to promote and another has decided to devote its entire advertising budget for one of its brands to digital sources. A report in 2003 reported that underage drinking represents 19. 2% of alcohol consumption out of the total 50. 52 billion drinks then consumed annually. One area of concern in the substance abuse field is the constant creation of beverages that appeal to younger people. Women, minority and developing countries are also a target for the alcohol beverage. The advertisements that include women are seen to be sexist and they portray men in the stereotypes of male behavior that contribute to sexual harassment. The alcohol beverage industry is also trying to maintain profits by increasing foreign sales even brewing companies are starting to brew overseas which raises an ethical question. It may seem to be a sort of a counterbalance of the alcohol industry’s efforts to have its product appear on television by promoting responsible drinking, but a young person would have to watch 22 ads for an alcoholic beverage before seeing a commercial promoting responsible drinking. (Jean Kinney 18-25) What inspired you to choose this topic? I was inspired to choose the topic of alcohol advertising because it is everywhere. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t see some type of alcohol advertisement from a billboard, a grocery store display of alcohol, or a television ad. I am amazed by the efforts of how the alcohol industry spends their money to attract new customers. When I look at some new alcoholic beverage that is introduced, I may say to myself,†Wow, that looks good, I wonder what that would taste like. † I don’t consider trying it because I am a recovering addict. It shows that there needs to be more regulation of the advertisements of alcoholic beverages. Also being a professional in the field of drugs and alcohol, the ways of coping with alcohol advertisement being everywhere needs to be addressed in a client/patient’s treatment plan. How will you apply this information when developing a treatment plan? I will apply all this information when developing a treatment plan by discussing and processing with my client how to cope with the environmental cues that may cause a trigger to pick up a drink. Since advertisement of alcohol is everywhere, my patient/or client needs to learn how to live a sober life without feeling they missed out on some new beverage that is being introduced. Also I may process and discuss with my client that if there is a particular place that they have bought their alcohol to avoid and shop elsewhere for their groceries. There is no way to escape the advertisement of alcohol unless one lives an isolated, sheltered life. I cannot expect any patient of mine to live like that, so they must learn to cope in the world without being triggered to drink by the clever promotional campaigns that the alcohol industry promotes there beverages to entice new drinkers or even for people to switch from their loyal brands or to encourage underage drinking.